Ellison Gives Up Oracle CEO Role for CTO

Oracle Corp.'s iconic co-founder and CEO Larry Ellison announced Thursday that he is stepping aside from day-to-day management at Oracle to focus on technology and strategy.

According to the announcement, which was released Thursday after the U.S. financial markets closed, Ellison will vacate his position as CEO effective immediately, with two executives taking over Oracle's CEO responsibilities -- Mark Hurd, current co-president of Oracle, and Safra Catz, the other co-president and Oracle's CFO.

Ellison will remain at Oracle as its new CTO and executive chairman of the board of directors, the company said.

"Safra and Mark will now report to the Oracle Board rather than to me," Ellison said in a prepared statement. "All the other reporting relationships will remain unchanged."

Hurd will manage all issues related to Oracle's global vertical industry businesses, as well as sales and service. Catz will oversee all legal, finance and manufacturing matters. Ellison will be responsible for all hardware and software engineering matters.

"The three of us have been working well together for the last several years, and we plan to continue working together for the foreseeable future," Ellison said. "Keeping this management team in place has always been a top priority of mine."

Oracle gave no explanation for Ellison's role change in its announcement beyond a statement by Dr. Michael Boskin, presiding director of Oracle's board, who said that Ellison "made it very clear that he wants to keep working full time and focus his energy on product engineering, technology development and strategy."